A good night for English teams as both Liverpool and Chelsea advanced to the Champions League quarter-finals.
Liverpool hammered Real Madrid 4-0 behind two goals from Steven Gerrard and one each from Fernando Torres and Andrea Dossena. From the first minute Madrid were on the back foot and this game was over within 30 minutes as first Torres fired home from close range in the 16th minute before the captain converted a penalty 12 minutes later after Gabriel Heinze had controversially been adjudged to have handled. On the night Liverpool looked so much faster and Real need an overhaul or their line-up if they want to compete with the best in Europe again.
In Turin, Chelsea managed a fighting 2-2 draw against 10-man Juventus in Turin that secured a 3-2 aggregate victory. Vincenzo Iaquinta put Juventus level in the tie in the 19th minute but Michael Essien scored a vital away goal for the Blues in first-half stoppage time.
Juventus went back in front with a penalty from Alessandro Del Piero in the 74th minute but Didier Drogba wrecked their dreams of a comeback with Chelsea’s second seven minutes from time.
In the other games, Bayern Munich carried on where they left off two weeks ago, inflicting a record 7-1 defeat on Sporting Lisbon to book their place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. The 12-1 result was a record aggregate winning margin for a post-group stage Champions League game, surpassing Lyon’s 10-2 demolition of Werder Bremen in 2005.
Leading 5-0 from the first leg, a double from Lukas Podolski and Anderson Polga’s own goal put them 3-0 up on the night within 40 minutes before Joao Moutinho pulled one back in stunning fashion. It was the briefest respite for Sporting, though, Bastian Schweinsteiger hitting an immediate reply, before Mark van Bommel, Miroslav Klose (pen) and Thomas Muller netted in the second half.
In the final game of the night Joseba Llorente’s strike sealed Villarreal’s place in the last eight after a battling 2-1 victory over Panathinaikos in Athens. Manuel Pellegrini’s team, who went into the second leg of the first knockout round tie with the disadvantage of having conceded on home soil in the 1-1 draw two weeks ago, opened the scoring just after half-time through Ariel Ibagaza.
Vangelis Mantzios levelled the tie with his fourth goal in six matches before Llorente, who replaced Nihat Kahveci at half-time, drilled home Ibagaza’s dinked pass to clinch a 3-2 aggregate victory for Villarreal.
